By a Portland Police Bureau mistake a UPI reporter was told the name of the skyjacker was D.B. Cooper. Thereafter this became his handle.

   An intense, intense search of the drop zone found nothing.

     As a result, people wanted to believe the cool skyjacker had been successful. No sign of a parachute meant he had buried it and escaped with his ill-gotten gains. He quickly became a folk hero. Such were the times and seasons. Bucking the establishment had cachet.

   But the FBI had photographed each $20 bill in a Recordak. Banks had copies of the serial numbers. None would ever be spent. For lead FBI agent, Ralph Himmelsbach, this only confirmed Cooper had splattered, possibly in Lake Merwin. The winds were higher than expected; the weather stormier than anticipated. This had driven Cooper from his intended drop zone, he believed.

     But time and investigation was proving something disturbing. The Bureau couldn’t identify the swarthy skyjacker, not under any name. They couldn’t find a missing person who fit the description. No one reported a friend or family member who fit the description. Had he indeed survived and returned to his normal routine, remaining completely unsuspected? 

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